THE GAMEMASTER #17: Dealing With the Hiatus

It’s been more than a few months since my group has been able to get together to play.

I blame myself. I had a trip to Paris, a number of conventions, a busy work schedule, and a hectic family life makes my schedule a little hard to juggle against five others from time to time.

After such a long absence, I wasn’t sure if the story we were collaborating to tell through the game would hold the same interest after such an absence from play. So I did what any sane gamemaster should do: I wrote up the story thus far in intricate, prose-like detail and sent it to everyone to refresh their memories. And I sent each of my players a reminder of their characters and where they were at and what their motivations were. And I reminded them of the stakes in the world and why they were where they were.

Once the context had been rebuilt for them, it seemed like the game had never missed a session in the first place.

Everyone arrived (generally on time for once) and knew exactly where they needed to be to create an interesting session and let the story progress naturally along the lines they’ve dictated. And since we’re half a dozen sessions into this game, I’ve been able to dangle enough plot threads at them that I don’t have to prod them into doing anything. There are enough things to do, enough forces at play, and enough things going on in the world around them that there’s always something to investigate that I’ve dropped hints about that they can learn more of.

In fact, half of this session was spent exploring side-plot threads that allowed me to fill in more detail in what I was thinking and never once force them in a direction they didn’t want to go.

In fact, at one point, I’d tried luring them into a dungeon crawl in case they were bored of the roleplaying and investigation aspects of the game and they simply left, opting to deal with a much more important piece of the plot.

My advice then, is to keep the story visceral and at the tops of their mind, and make them want to do more than just fight in dungeons. It will be a much more fun experience for everyone. And keep track of all the plot threads you’ve been weaving into games so that if there is a long hiatus you can remind everyone of what they are before the game begins. If the story is good enough and they feel like they have a vested stake in the outcome of the world, they’re going to have fun and play to the best of their abilities. Fun, in the context of games like this, is a self-fulfilling prophecy. If they arrive to their session jazzed on the notes you’ve sent, the players are going to be jazzed through the session.

Which is why it always helps to keep meticulous notes.

You’ll never know when you need to pass them on to the party.